4 thoughts on “Latvian Genealogical Society”

Hi, I have recently found that my family comes from Latvia (Riga) and not from Germany as we had thought. The surname that I have been surching is the “americanized” version of Pucce or Puke. My great great grandfather, John Bloom, came over about 1902, he was a cobler in Riga, through Ellis Island and set up a farm in Enfield, Massachusetts. He was born in 1869, his middle name begins with an F and he married Louise Suhna, also of Riga. But that is all that I have found. I’ve searched ancestry.com and everywhere else for records but I can’t find anything. If there is any way that you could help I would be very grateful.

“Puķe” means “Flower” in Latvian, so “Bloom” does appear to be an appropriate anglicization. If “John Bloom” was the American name he took, his Latvian name was probably “Jānis Puķe”. The surname could also be “Puķītis”, the diminutive form of “Puķe” – diminutives are quite common, and often more common than non-diminutive forms.

His wife’s surname, Sūna (Suhna would be the old German-style spelling, which was in use until the 1920s, so fits with the time period), means “moss”.

Have you tried looking at Raduraksti (http://www.lvva-raduraksti.lv)? You can view old Latvian church books there. Have you retrieved his US naturalization documents? These might provide more details as to where precisely he lived – especially vital for a large city like Rīga. What religion was he? You will need to know this to make use of this resource. Once you know where precisely he lived in Rīga, you may also be able to make use of the 1897 All-Russia Census, also available on Raduraksti. The census records are arranged by street name.

My father in law, Paul Pretiz,was born in Boston. His parents, Bertulis Pretics and Marija Pretics (Peterkop/Alkschbirz) were from Talsie. They were inmigrants to US (Ellis Island and then Boston). I think Pretics surname is not a Latvian one. There are a few Pretics in Ogre but it seems to be a very small family. Can you tell me something about Pretics surname? Thank you!

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